SIMEON S. BASSETT, LT, USN

Simeon Bassett '47

Date of birth: 1826

Age: ~32

Loss

Simeon, after having been ill "for some time", died "of convulsions" on May 6, 1859 off Buenos Ayres. He was serving aboard Bainbridge at the time.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In July 1850 census in New London, Connecticut, Simeon was living with the family of William Albertson, a foundry worker. On March 8, 1851, he wrote a letter from there saying that he had been detached from the mail steamer Atlantic, but wished to be reassigned to her. He had declined to serve under a merchant mate as first officer of that ship and Captain West appointed the purser. This met the approval of his fellow officers, and he hoped that it met with Commander M. C. Perry’s as well.

He was born in, and appointed to the Naval Academy from, Washington, D.C.

He is buried in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Information from newspaper clippings located by Kathy Franz.)

Career

From the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Midshipman, 10 September, 1841. Passed Midshipman, 10 August, 1847. Master, 14 September, 1855. Lieutenant, 15 September, 1855. Died 6 May, 1859.

Though it is not captured in the Registers of Navy Officers below, Simeon was aboard the brig USS Truxtun (1842) when that vessel went aground off of Mexico in August 1846.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.